Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to support economic development in seaside towns in the North.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The Government is committed to coastal communities and levelling-up across the UK. Recent interventions in Blackpool and Grimsby have led to tangible improvements and investment in these areas to kickstart economic growth and helped deepen our understanding of the challenges faced by northern coastal communities. For example, in Blackpool we have recently invested £30 million to unlock ambitious regeneration plans worth over £300 million through repurposing public land.
Three out of the eight English Freeports are located in northern coastal areas which are designed to drive forward economic growth and innovation. Coastal communities also continue to benefit from the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund, where we have just announced our support for over 100 more projects, including in Blackpool, Cleethorpes, and Hull. There are also 22 coastal towns that are recipients of Town Deals worth up to £25 million, in places like Whitby and Birkenhead. Overall, coastal areas across the UK will benefit from over £673 million of investment via the Towns Fund.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what further plans he has to ensure levelling up of northern rural areas includes improving (a) road transportation links and (b) internet connectivity; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Government has made progress towards spreading opportunity around the country since 2019, alongside mitigating the worst effects of the pandemic, with £5 billion for Project Gigabit to bring gigabit-capable broadband to 85% of the UK by 2025, and the £1 billion Shared Rural Network deal with mobile operators delivering 4G coverage to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025. Gigabit coverage has increased from 10% to over 60% in less than two years, and public investment will target premises that are hardest to reach, ensuring no areas are left behind.
In the last twelve months, gigabit-capable network coverage has almost doubled in Yorkshire and quadrupled in the North East. To ensure that rural areas are supported, our procurements for rural areas where commercial roll-out may not occur are already live in several parts of the North, including Cumbria and the North East, offering hundreds of millions of pounds of support to suppliers who are helping us to level up.
The Government is also clear that well maintained local road networks are a key form of local transport. The Government is already investing more than £5 billion from 2020 to 2025 for highways maintenance to local highways authorities across England, enough to fill millions of potholes a year, repair dozens of bridges and resurface hundreds of roads up and down the country. This is in addition to the £2.6 billion to deliver over 50 road upgrades and builds on our commitment to accelerate delivery of the A66, ensuring that it is open for traffic five years sooner than the original plan.
As set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, Government is providing £51 million for smaller local transport improvements across the North West, as well as £280 million for local roads maintenance between 2022-23 and 2024-25 to local authorities not receiving City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements. In Yorkshire and the Humber, £194 million has been committed for local roads maintenance between 2022-23 and 2024-25, and £33 million for transport improvements across the region. The Government has invested over £40 million in highways maintenance schemes through the former York, North Yorkshire, and East Riding Local Enterprise Partnership’s Growth Deal, including £16.7 million in the East Riding of Yorkshire. In addition, through our Getting Building Fund programme, the Government has invested over £2 million in a Hull and East Yorkshire Highways Resilience Programme, £6m to deliver reconstruction of the A19 at Chapel Haddlesey in the Selby district, and up to £3.6 million to support a North Yorkshire digital infrastructure programme.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to repeal section 8 of the Local Government Act 1894; if he will issue guidance and clarification to local councils as a matter of urgency on its current scope and effect; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government has no current plans to repeal or issue guidance on section 8 of the Local Government Act 1894.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of whether buyers should be warned of fees likely to be incurred when purchasing real property through the modern method of auction, including stamp duty; and what steps he is taking to ensure that the parties to any transaction agreed under that method are fully aware of their liabilities and responsibilities beforehand; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
It is important that both buyers and sellers who use Modern Methods of Auction take the time to understand the process before they enter into a transaction. We would expect them to understand the fees that are payable and the timescale for payment before they make a commitment to buy or sell. Agents should help them by making this information clear at the outset.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will launch a formal consultation and a call for evidence to assess the level of public support for permanently enabling virtual participation to take place in all parish and town council meetings after 7 May 2021; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The Government keeps all policy under review and will be carefully considering the experience of local authorities using the provisions in the Coronavirus Act 2020 and the case for enabling local authorities to meet remotely on a permanent basis.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what (a) guidelines and (b) processes are in place to ensure that local authorities in Business Improvement Districts carry out a periodic audit or value for money review into the (i) scope of work undertaken by BID management companies and (ii) their overall cost effectiveness.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are a proven and effective vehicle for leveraging private investment and have a significant role to play in high street regeneration.
In 2019, 259 BIDs across England raised over £106.7 million through levy payments to invest back into their respective towns and cities. Their role will be even more important in the recovery phase from the current crisis.
BIDs are vehicles for businesses to effect collective local action to manage and improve the high streets and town centres where they exist and trade. They are created under a democratic process which requires their mandate to be renewed every five years. They are also subject to the usual rules under the Companies Acts, such as standard accounting practices and audit and disclosure requirements, that apply to the corporate structure that they chose to adopt, such as companies limited by guarantee or limited liability partnerships. BIDs are also subject to The Business Improvement Districts (England) Regulations 2004.
Although many BIDs work closely and effectively with the local authorities in their area, they are independent of both local and central government. The work that they do must be approved in a ballot by their member organisations and the levy that they charge is similarly approved through the ballot process. If BID members are dissatisfied with the work that their BID is doing, or if there is any irregularity in the way the BID operates, the usual statutory remedies apply. BID members can also decline to vote for its continuation when a renewal ballot is held.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will review the length of time being taken by local authorities to process Local Authority Land Registry Searches; if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of imposing a maximum time limit for that processing; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
HM Land Registry is working with local authorities to transform the fragmented Local Land Charges services into a single national digital register across England and Wales as quickly as possible. The service offers instant online access helping users make quicker property related decisions. We have also set local authorities a target of ten working days to return local searches and nearly 88 per cent of authorities met this target this summer. We will continue to keep this performance under review.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to require local authorities to cancel levies in relation to Business Improvement Districts for 2020 and until after the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Business Improvement Districts (BIDs)?are a proven and effective vehicle for?leveraging private investment and have a significant role to play in high street regeneration. Their role will be even more important in the recovery phase from the current crisis.
BID organisations are advised to work closely with their members, sector bodies and local authorities in coming to sensible arrangements on charging given the current circumstances. BIDs or local authorities may want to take legal advice on how they can manage their BID levy using their existing powers.
In March, the Government included provisions within the Coronavirus Act 2020 that enables?BIDs to delay any renewal ballots due to take place before 31 December 2020 until 31 March 2021. This allows businesses to focus on recovery from the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic before deciding whether to participate in future BID arrangements.
In addition to this legislation, the Government made available up to £6.1 million of support to BIDs. The funding has been delivered to 260 BIDs in England via local authorities, including £53,270.30 paid to Scarborough Borough Council on behalf of the Yorkshire Coast BID, part of which covers the East Yorkshire constituency.
We?will continue to?work closely with the sector to look at how further we can support BIDs, and the businesses that contribute to them, during this time.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to (i) review, (ii) improve and (iii) expand the Flood Recovery Framework, and the resources available, to manage more effectively future severe flooding; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
Following the first activation of the Flood Recovery Framework in November 2019, the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government agreed with HM Treasury to lead a cross-government review on the efficacy and effectiveness of the Framework.
The review will consider how to improve the Framework and support future severe flooding.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has put in place to ensure that local authorities fulfill their duties to make sure that new buildings are compliant with building regulations as a result of Dame Judith Hackitt’s independent review of building regulations and fire safety; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
In April 2020 the Government published our response to the consultation, Building a Safer Future, which sought views on our proposals for a radically new building safety system, based on the recommendations of Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety. We will legislate for these reforms through the Building Safety Bill, which was published today.